Retrieval of similar travel routes using GPS tracklog place names

GPS tracklogs provide a valuable record of routes travelled. In this paper we describe initial experiments exploring the use of text information retrieval techniques for the location of similar trips from within a GPS tracklog. We performed the experiment on a dataset of 528 individual trips gathered over a seven month time period from a single user. The results of our preliminary study suggest that traditional text-based information retrieval techniques can indeed be used to locate similar and related tracklogs

Summarisation & Visualisation of Large Volumes of Time-Series Sensor Data

a number of sensors, including an electricity usage sensor supplied by Episensor. This poses our second With the increasing ubiquity of sensor data, challenge, how to summarise an extended period of presenting this data in a meaningful way to electrictiy usage data for a home user. users is a challenge that must be addressed before we can easily deploy real-world sensor network interfaces in the home or workplace. In this paper, we will present one solution to the visualisation of large quantities of sensor data that is easy to understand and yet provides meaningful and intuitive information to a user, even when examining many weeks or months of historical data. We will illustrate this visulalisation technique with two real-world deployments of sensing the person and sensing the home

Multimodal segmentation of lifelog data

A personal lifelog of visual and audio information can be very helpful as a human memory augmentation tool. The SenseCam, a passive wearable camera, used in conjunction with an iRiver MP3 audio recorder, will capture over 20,000 images and 100 hours of audio per week. If used constantly, very soon this would build up to a substantial collection of personal data. To gain real value from this collection it is important to automatically segment the data into meaningful units or activities. This paper investigates the optimal combination of data sources to segment personal data into such activities. 5 data sources were logged and processed to segment a collection of personal data, namely: image processing on captured SenseCam images; audio processing on captured iRiver audio data; and processing of the temperature, white light level, and accelerometer sensors onboard the SenseCam device. The results indicate that a combination of the image, light and accelerometer sensor data segments our collection of personal data better than a combination of all 5 data sources. The accelerometer sensor is good for detecting when the user moves to a new location, while the image and light sensors are good for detecting changes in wearer activity within the same location, as well as detecting when the wearer socially interacts with others

Exploring mobile trajectories: An investigation of individual spatial behaviour and geographic filters for information retrieval - Volume 1

This section presents both quantitative results, related to the performance of prediction surfaces according to the evaluation criteria described in section 3.5, and qualitative results, based upon testing geographic filters for information retrieval in an outdoor mobile computing environment as part of a major user evaluation study in the Swiss National Park, in the Summer of 2004. The chapter begins with quantitative evaluation, where three test scenarios are described (walking, driving and daily migration), followed by a description of the systematic variation in the temporal component of prediction, designed to compare short-term (10 minutes) and long-term (60 minutes) predictions into future. Next, three geographic filters described in the methodology are introduced as prediction surfaces. The three filters are spatial proximity, temporal proximity and speed-heading predictions. For each approach, the prediction input parameters were varied in a systematic way to uncover the impact of buffer size and distance decay functions (for spatial proximity prediction surfaces), the ‘recent behaviour period’, temporal weighting and decay function (for speed-heading prediction surfaces) and the time budget and enclosing function (for temporal proximity prediction surfaces). Next, the results are presented and analysed to describe, explain and contrast the characteristics of each prediction approach. This is followed by a brief assessment of the suitability of each approach to the scenarios in which it was tested. Overall, predictions based upon temporal proximity are found to be more effective than speed-heading predictions, which in turn out are more effective than predictions based upon spatial proximity. Finally, the chapter concludes with the results of the user evaluation study, which suggests that users of mobile information retrieval tools found the implemented “search ahead” filter useful, are receptive to the idea of other geographic filters, and benefit from the use of personalised geographic information with a spatial and temporal component

Profiling and Grouping Space-time Activity Patterns of Urban Individuals

No abstract

The Valley of the Kings? Social Complexity of Inland Thrace during the First Millennium BC.

The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace is claimed to be a well-defined state, a solid political unit that exercised a strong influence on political events in the Aegean world during 5th and 4th centuries BC (Archibald 1998). Greek historical sources are used to support this claim, yet their interpretation is problematic. Ancient authors remain indirect and highly ambiguous, infusing personal agendas and Graeco-centric perceptions into their observations. Archaeological evidence seems to offer much more robust support for the claim of a powerful Thracian state with its overwhelming number of sumptuous burial assemblages that attest to intense social stratification and wealth inequality among the Thracian population during the Classical and post-Classical periods (Kitov 2008, Fol and Marazov 1977). The interpretations, based principally on the mortuary data, have indeed been compelling and intuitively satisfying, yet they have failed to incorporate other classes of evidence that are inconsistent with the “state” model, such as divergent historical accounts, absence of urban centers, and lack of administrative and ideological manifestations of the alleged state. My study corrects this mortuary based bias in the study of the Odrysian kingdom by introducing settlement pattern data based on original research in the Thracian interior, specifically the Tundzha River watershed, an alleged homeland of the Odrysians. The existing regional legacy data will be contextualized and contrasted with the surface survey evidence, and explanation will be sought for divergence among them. My dissertation produces a definition of Thracian socio-political form(s) during the Classical period, drawing on the results of surface survey, its integration with several different classes of the archaeological record and complemented by critical use of anthropological neo-evolutionary theory. On the basis of the data acquired by the Tundzha Regional Archaeological Project, I argue that the Thracian polity does not approach the state-level of organization until the 4th century BC, when a major stimulus is delivered to the indigenous communities by the Macedonian conquest. The state institutions take root and only become manifest in the regional archaeological record after further delay - during the Roman period.Ph.D.Classical Art & ArchaeologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91457/1/adelas_1.pd

Embodying heritage: a biosocial investigation into emotion, memory & historic landscapes

This thesis examines the embodied geographies of heritage environments by discussing the various features and qualities of these environments in relation to the body. Emerging from, and contributing to, the increased emphasis on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies in human geography and particularly developments in biosocial theory, this thesis develops an original approach to the study of embodiment within geography. This approach pays attention to the socio-cultural, material-built, remembered, and more-than-human environments that are present in urban conservation areas and the psychophysiological events that occur in this relatedness. In doing so, this thesis pursues two interlinked lines of enquiry: firstly, it develops and critically evaluates a biosocial methodology through the use of biosensing technology within a qualitative mixed-methods approach. In doing so, it discusses the effectiveness of biosensing technology outside of a laboratory setting and for investigating different areas of study in geography. Secondly, and drawing upon the residents’ accounts of the urban conservation areas of Bournville, Moseley and the Jewellery Quarter (Birmingham, UK), the thesis discusses the various features (both in material and imagined worlds) that establish or contribute to an individual’s connection with the urban heritage environments. Combined, these two lines of enquiry create a biosocial account of urban heritage landscapes

11th International Coral Reef Symposium Proceedings

A defining theme of the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium was that the news for coral reef ecosystems are far from encouraging. Climate change happens now much faster than in an ice-age transition, and coral reefs continue to suffer fever-high temperatures as well as sour ocean conditions. Corals may be falling behind, and there appears to be no special silver bullet remedy. Nevertheless, there are hopeful signs that we should not despair. Reef ecosystems respond vigorously to protective measures and alleviation of stress. For concerned scientists, managers, conservationists, stakeholders, students, and citizens, there is a great role to play in continuing to report on the extreme threat that climate change represents to earth’s natural systems. Urgent action is needed to reduce CO2 emissions. In the interim, we can and must buy time for coral reefs through increased protection from sewage, sediment, pollutants, overfishing, development, and other stressors, all of which we know can damage coral health. The time to act is now. The canary in the coral-coal mine is dead, but we still have time to save the miners. We need effective management rooted in solid interdisciplinary science and coupled with stakeholder buy in, working at local, regional, and international scales alongside global efforts to give reefs a chance.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_icrs/1000/thumbnail.jp